Barack Obama has been generating a lot of buzz for noting that
Ronald Reagan was a transformational president (video here).
A point I've been making for over a year, and one that I
emphasized in my cover story on
Obama for our July/August issue, is that conservatives should be
worried about Obama because he has the potential to advance
liberalism in a way that Reagan advanced conservatism, given his
charisma and optimism. Hillary Clinton, as much of a nightmare as
she would be, would be too polarizing to win over any people who
weren't already on her side.
Yesterday, Dave Weigel noted that there is no
appetite on the angry left for winning converts. The mere act of
Obama making an historical point that "Ronald Reagan changed the
trajectory of America" was enought to get the liberal rage machine
pumping.
And right out of the gate came the pugilistic populist himself,
John Edwards, who issued the following statement yesterday:
"Senator Obama was wrong -- frightfully so -- in using Ronald
Reagan as an example of voters reaching for change. The breadth of
change Ronald Reagan brought was crippling for millions of
Americans with the two worst recessions since the Depression, a
complete disregard for the rights of American labor, and tax cuts
that lined the pockets of the richest Americans at the expense of
fiscal sanity and the well-being of the most vulnerable in our
society."
Today, I got an email that the Clinton
campaign is hosting a conference call feauturing Barney Frank to
counter Obama's other comments that the Republican Party was the
party of ideas for 10 to 15 years.
This is utter sillyness. As a
conservative, I can acknowledge the fact that FDR was an
historically significant president who changed the nation
dramatically, even though I think that those changes had
disasterous implications for our nation (see here).
But if liberals cannot understand the fact
that to change the nation, they'll have to sell Americans on their
vision for government, that's great news for conservatives. Let
them nominate Clinton, because even if she wins the presidency, 50
percent of the country will automatically be against anything she
tries to accomplish.
UPDATE: Weigel was on the Clinton conference call.
topics:
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Books, NATO, Conservatism
